Spanish GP - Friday - Practice Session 1 Report

Lewis shows Fernando the way

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the first test session for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona with a lap that was four-tenths of a second faster than his team-mate Fernando Alonso. The two McLarens surprised by being ahead of the Ferraris which had been expected to lead the way after some very good testing times last week. Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest with Felipe Massa fifth, the pair being split by the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica. The biggest surprise was Anthony Davidson in sixth place in his Super Aguri-Honda, ahead of the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher and the Williams of Nico Rosberg.

Jenson Button did better than he has done in recent events with the 10th best time, ahead of Alexander Wurz's Williams, Nick Heidfeld's BMW, Takuma Sato's Super Aguri and the Renaults of Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella.

The two Red Bull-Renaults were next with David Coulthard ahead of Mark Webber despite a spin and then Rubens Barrichello.

Down at the back were Adrian Suttil's Spyker ahead of Tonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso, Scott Speed in a similar car and Christijan Albers in his Spyker.

The big question is how significant the times are in the overall scheme of things and for that we will probably have to wait until after qualifying on Saturday.